Palace fixture pile-up ‘irresponsible’ – Glasner

Following a fixture glut that led to Crystal Palace reaching the EFL Cup quarter-finals, manager Oliver Glasner claims it would be “irresponsible” for them to play two games in three days.

The Eagles will travel to Leeds United on Sunday, December 21 and travel to Manchester City on Sunday, December 14 for a conference match against KuPS on Thursday, December 18.

Arsenal, their EFL Cup final eight opponents, want a tie played on December 16th. Three games in five days, four in eight, or five in eleven will be required if Palace are told to play on that date.

When I first heard it yesterday, I was very upset. I was astonished that they were considering this.

Instead of having six midweeks like they used to, Uefa’s European calendar now includes 10 rather than six, with the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League each receiving a week-long break for exposure.

Due to the need for the third round of the EFL Cup to be seeded and played over two weeks to keep Champions League and Europa League clubs apart, it has created a significant logistical problem.

A Premier League team having to play two games in one week in December and the Conference League moving into the regular slot for the EFL Cup quarter-finals, it was a pretty straightforward fix.

There is precedent for two games being played in a week between Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur in recent years, but it doesn’t really put player welfare first. Players’ representatives and Fifa agreed that between games, there should be at least 72 hours of rest between breaks.

I spoke about this problem three months ago when I looked at the summertime off-season schedule and added Glasner. I would really appreciate it if some of the people involved in this discussed it together.

The two cups, the Premier League, and international games are “. Because it’s so unexpected, it would be nice if Uefa, Premier League, and FA collaborated. You might not be able to find a solution right now, but we must now. Playing Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday would be irresponsible.

“But there is a solution because we play Leeds on December 21 and then on December 28. There was a lot of discussion about why there are no Boxing Day [matches]]. Again, they resolved these issues without getting in touch with anyone. It would be nice if they all agreed that they were paid for what they did.

There isn’t a way to please everyone, despite Palace’s ability to successfully challenge their decision to play on December 16 as the most likely date.

On Friday, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta stated that “every decision that we make in terms of a fixture must be based on two things: the player welfare and the supporters.”

Arsenal and Palace will only have 48 hours after their Premier League games from Sunday, December 23rd, with Everton and Leeds taking the team.

Arsenal may believe they shouldn’t have to miss a week because of something they didn’t intend to do. Both clubs will enter the match with the same issue of short-term fatigue, so Palace will say that’s the fairest outcome.

Although it has also been suggested for Christmas Eve, December 24th, the Emirates will no longer host an evening game with 60, 000 fans because London’s transportation system will begin to shut down after 7pm. And that means having a working day in the afternoon, which would likely have begun at 4 p.m. at the very least. It’s not a solution that’s intended to appeal to supporters in any way.

For the first time in 28 years, a top-flight game had been scheduled on that day, Wolves and Chelsea were forced to play on Christmas Eve, 2023. Although there was a lot of controversy, it was at least Sunday and had a kick-off time of 1pm.